by Bob Wainwright

Created on: June 29, 2008

My first car...a reflection of note!

For most individuals over their lifetimes there will be certain "reflections or memories" that will never fade. The first girlfriend, pet, car, whatever! For me it was my first car, a yellow 1954 Chevrolet convertible. It was only four years but it was a hard four years! At some point in its life it must have been a "swimmer," a car that had been immersed in water to some degree. I should have been suspicious, only $75.00, too good to be true!

It started to become evident after having owned the car for a couple of weeks. The first clue was after driving in the rain for the first time, my feet became quite wet from water that had splashed up and eventually through the cardboard floorboards? I knew the floor felt springy underfoot but thought it must have been the deep pile shag rug on the floor, so much for the "cool" rug! Then on a bumpy road one day, the jack et al fell through the trunk floor! Of course this had to happen while I motored by the "guys" hanging around the local gas station, amidst the laughter and pointed comments, I retrieved the wayward the jack, but never did find the lug wrench?

Other than the snide remarks about the cloud of iron oxide particles and oil smoke that seemed to surround the car...I was still enthralled with my "ride." That is, until the day I had to give my Dad a ride to work, as the family chariot was being treated to a "day of beauty" (an oil change, wash and wax) at the local repair shop. The crushing blow came when I casually asked my Dad why he was riding with his elbow out the window on such a cool day, he replied that, " he was concerned about falling through the car's floor!"

Undaunted and striving to make the best of it, I endured faulty shift linkage that occasionally prevented shifting from second to third gear. I had to get out and bang on the linkage with a hammer to free it. The butterfly choke that had to be occasionally propped open with a pencil at the most inopportune times. Then the marvelous power windows began to fail one by one, because of the horrendous cost of replacing the faulty motors the windows had to be secured in the up position. Of course the driver's window was rigged with a coat hanger that allowed it to be manually lowered. This was critical as the "new drive in" restaurants had made their debut and I needed a place to hang the tray brought by the rather attractive "car hop" on roller skates. You must understand it was a matter of priorities!

A rather humiliating

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